Virtual pilot lands Qantas jet
If this keeps on, in 30 years there won't be any pilot jobs around any more...
Virtual pilot lands Qantas jet
By Geoff Easdown
April 14, 2004
THE Qantas jumbo was at cruise altitude heading to Melbourne when aviation's latest gee-whiz tool took charge in the cockpit last week.
For 45 minutes last Wednesday the flight from Singapore responded to commands despatched from the tower at Tullamarine.
Flight QF10, carrying 400 passengers, went from 39,000ft to a standing stop on the tarmac without the pilots or tower talking.
A revolutionary landing process driven entirely by digitised commands was transmitted to the aircraft via the tower computer.
Qantas head of flight operations, Chris Manning said yesterday that the new "tailored arrival system" would be tested over the next six months and hopefully adopted afterwards by safety regulator Airservices Australia.
Except for a couple of relatively minor issues, the first trial went exceptionally well, he said yesterday.
Qantas is using Boeing 747-400 and Airbus A330 jets for the trials on selected in-bound international and domestic flights to Melbourne and Sydney airports. Capt Manning said the trial would involve about 100 flights until October.
Conducted in association with Boeing, Air Services Australia and Europe's Air Traffic Alliance, the aim is to find solutions to the go-around landing problem for pilots and passengers at busy airports.
Capt Manning said that, unlike present landing strategies, the new system gave controllers more time to plot procedures and give incoming aircraft direct glide paths.
"It will reduce noise, cut fuel burn and noise and generate substantial savings," he said.
It's estimated that a jumbo using the system operating between Melbourne and Sydney could save 300kg of jet fuel and about 200kg on an A330jet.
Details about the trial and last Wednesday's landing emerged yesterday when the national flag carrier demonstrated the technology at its new flight simulators at Essendon.
An Airbus A330 simulator, operated by Capt Duncan Pudney, was used to demonstrate a tailored landing from 41,000ft.
Tower commands received via a data uplink were loaded by Capt Pudney into the simulator's flight management system.
From that point on, Capt Pudney simply followed a voice command from the onboard computer. "It is just a matter of monitoring the auto flight system through to the auto-land arrangement," he said.
The only instruction was an order to adjust the thrust levers to idle. After touchdown, Capt Pudney manually activated reverse thrust to assist braking.
"Using reverse thrust and the automated breaking system the plane decelerates taxi speed," Capt Pudney said.
With the aircraft near to standstill, he deactivated the auto braking system and the automatic pilot. He was then able to manually move the plane off the centreline of the runway.
Capt Manning said the new system allowed pilots a "limitless range of flight path options."
"This ensures the most efficient arrival path possible," he said.
He said Qantas crew and air traffic controllers would constantly evaluate each flight during the landing and arrival phases. Qantas is also testing an initiative where computers coupled to glass displays are being tested on 737-800 aircraft to further improve precision landings.
The new system does away with the conventional way pilots scan flight instruments. Pilots need only glance at a see-through glass panel for a readout of instruments in front of the windscreen.